Trucks are commonly provided with tiers or compartments for the transportation of live poultry. For example, a truck may be provided with two longitudinal rows of ten vertical tiers of compartments with doors that open outward onto the opposite sides of the truck. The present invention relates to a multiple compartment structure for trucks of the character set forth in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,588,166 issued June 28, 1971 and entitled MULTIPLE COMPARTMENT STRUCTURE FOR TRUCKS, which patent is hereby incorporated into the present disclosure by reference.
In a multiple compartment structure of this type horizontal panels form the floors and ceilings of the compartments and the walls of the compartments are formed by wall members that incorporate vertical tubes. Vertical rods extend upward from the truck bed through the horizontal panels and through the vertical tubes of the wall members to form a unified structure that is advantageous because it may be assembled to a truck bed in a relatively short time wholly by unskilled workmen and because the structure may be dismantled at the end of a hauling season to permit the truck to be used for other purposes. A further special advantage is that the multiple compartment structure may be readily sterilized thoroughly to prevent the spreading of poultry diseases.
The outer open end of each compartment is closed by a door and the two opposite side walls and the back wall of each compartment are formed by wall members that incorporate vertical tubes for engagement by the vertical rods. In the structure disclosed in the aforesaid prior patent, each of two opposite side wall members of a compartment incorporates two vertical tubes at its opposite ends of engagement by the vertical rods and a back wall member of the compartment also incorporates two vertical tubes at its opposite ends for engagement by the vertical rods. Since each two successive compartments in a horizontal row of compartments have a common side wall with an additional side wall at one end of the row of compartments, four vertical rods are required for each tier in a horizontal row of tiers and two additional horizontal rods are required at the end of the row so that the number of vertical rods required for a horizontal row of N tiers is 4N+2. Thus, a horizontal row of 10 tiers of compartments would require 42 rods in the structure set forth in the above patent.